From Dostana to Safar

After watching Dostana, I caught up with this old gem on telly. With the ongoing strikes of TV technicians, there's been a lull in programming regular serials. So channels are now airing movies on their air time

As I watched the movie, I couldn't help comparing it with Dostana. There's 38 years gap between the two. But Safar still outshines.

The plot: Like Dostana, Safar is also a story of friendship. Two young medical students, Neela (Sharmila Tagore) and Avinash (Rajesh Khanna) meet in medical college, become good friends, fall in love, but never confess so in words. Why? Because it was 1970. Neela couldn't have taken the first step. And Avinash is suffering from blood cancer, and he doesn't want Neela to suffer on his behalf. Enters into this picture Shekhar (Feroz Khan), a dashing businessman, who falls for Neela and proposes to her. Avinash convinces Neela to accept the proposal because he wants her to live a comfortable life. However, destiny has something else in store.

Neela gets married to Shekhar but still remains a close, platonic friend to Avinash. This is not taken in good spirit by Shekhar who is battling with his own business troubles. The drama is fueled further when he reads an old letter of Neela, which Avinash had written in Neela's handwriting as a prank. Considering the words in the letter to be true, he asks Neels to marry Avinash and commits suicide. Neela is tried for murder, but found not guilty, while Avinash disappears from her life. What happens? Does Avinash come back to Neela's life? How does she pass her journey (safar) of life? What happens to Avinash?

The movie is beautiful like a fresh dew in the morning, effective in its simple storytelling ability, and touches the heart like a sweet pang.

So finally, what do you say?

Dostana is contrived and basically a fiction for most of us. Be honest. How many open gay couples will you find in real life? How many people get as many choices and second chances as everyone in the movie gets? How can one simply afford the yuppie lifestyle in Miami unless one is born with the silver spoon and a very generous daddy? The movie is an unreal as it comes.

Safar, on the other hand, is too real to be comfortable. How many times we've compromised because we have been asked to think from our head and not heart? Love is a beautiful feeling, but life needs to be comfortable, so how many of us have come up with this choice and chosen life over love? How many women are there whose marriages have not been troubled when they've been too honest with their husbands? How many of us have actually suffered from the pain of losing someone we love? How many times we've felt helpless when the one we love is gone forever and we just stand by helplessly? Life is a journey and we have to travel it, whatever comes

So on that note, I wish you all a very beautiful jeevan ka safar (life journey)

God bless.